This Old Couch is a historic farmhouse turned antique home furnishings store located at 3930 Xenia Rd. They sell repurposed antique furniture, local handcrafted items, soaps, candles and fireplace-mantle-toppers, most of which are made right here in Dayton.
Before opening the store, owners Brian and Lori Lucas were a retired military family looking to embark on a second career. They were always thrifty and had a passion for salvaging used items. Antiquing came naturally to them. In 2014, they opened their first antique shop in Beavercreek. Soon after, they opted to relocate. They shopped a few properties before they found the farmhouse. The moment they toured the old house, they knew it was perfect for them.
“When we walked through the front room for the first time, we saw where we were going to put the checkout counter. We saw how we were going to arrange everything in the rooms. We just knew it was the place for us,” said Brian.
The store is a yellow, two-story farmhouse built in 1896 by Daniel and Ida Coy. Back then, Dayton-Xenia was a little dirt road. The Coy farmhouse was the only house for miles. Now, sepia-toned photographs of the Coys hang throughout the store.
Their wedding photo from 1896 is in the room they were married in over a hundred years ago. One photograph shows the house shortly after being built in 1896; another shows the house in 1912. You can see the little trees from the first photo grow tall in the second. Telegraph poles, missing from the first, foreground the second.
You feel the history the moment you set foot in the store. The floor in the front room is tiled with yellowing pages from an old book called “Great Men and Famous Women.”
While touring the rooms filled with antique pieces given new leases on life and salvaged knick-knacks, all for sale, you get the sense that you’re in a cozy, rustic home from early 1900s Ohio.
“I wanted to arrange the furniture and decorate the house like a home, not like a furniture warehouse. The pieces are laid out the same way someone buying them might lay them out in their homes,” Lori said.
Brian and Lori make it a point to meet everyone who comes to their store. While conducting the interview, Brian stopped to hand out a piece of candy to a kid who came in with her mom. He even greeted a few customers by name. Fostering community in Beavercreek is clearly important to them. They host a Farmer’s Market every Sunday from May to October. They invite local food trucks and local foodies to enjoy delicious meals with their neighbors.
That little, yellow farmhouse built over a hundred years ago, like the furniture now sold inside, still has quite the story to tell.
